Time Trials: Reasonable Starting Time for 10 miles?

CanterburyTailwind

Yes, yes, I know, there's alot of you who can do 10 miles in the time it takes the rest of us to clip our shoes into our pedals, and that it's against your personal best etc etc, but back in the real world...is there any kind of average/reasonable target time to aim for?

Bronzie

A sub 30-minute ride is as good a starting point as any.

mc_nz

under 30 mins puts you at about 18mph average. In last months cycling weekly (or another mag) they broke down the same question and it read like this;

Over 10 miles cycling as fast as you can on a relative flat surface you should record your average;

Beginner - 18 mph & under
Intermediate - 18-22mph
Advanced - 22mph +

McBain_v1

Sounds fair to me

Smokin Joe

30 minutes for a ten is bang on 20mph, or "evens" in racing jargon.

CanterburyTailwind

These are really useful indicators - thank you all!
...just need to work on improving my speed now....

Mettan

I'd say - Riding Solo, on an ordinary Road bike with no TT mods and on ordinary roads, (as opposed to a designated TT DC etc), if you can do 10 miles in 32-34 minutes you're at a good starting point. Obviously with training, with TT mods or a full TT bike and on a pancake flat DC on a Summers day ("no" wind), you might be looking at 28 minutes as a starting point if you're a fit athletic guy with 6-9 months on the bike.

a_n_t

mc_nz wrote:

under 30 mins puts you at about 18mph average.

does time go quicker down there?

under 30 mins is over 20mph average.

sloboy

mc_nz wrote:

under 30 mins puts you at about 18mph average. In last months cycling weekly (or another mag) they broke down the same question and it read like this;

Over 10 miles cycling as fast as you can on a relative flat surface you should record your average;

Beginner - 18 mph & under
Intermediate - 18-22mph
Advanced - 22mph +

Bloomin' 'eck - that make me advanced. Just. Still counts though !

nmcgann

Yes, 30mins is the first target for a 10 on normal roads.

It's easier than you might think when you get a number on your back and the racing red mist decends.

Neil

hambones

30 mins would be a good benchmark time although you should never worry about how you compare to others, just enjoy doing them for yourself.

I think the speeds suggested in that magazine article are somewhat generous.

I'd offer 20mph or less = beginner
21-24 = intermediate
25+ = advanced

geoff_ss

hambones wrote:

30 mins would be a good benchmark time although you should never worry about how you compare to others, just enjoy doing them for yourself.

You mean you're supposed to enjoy it? :shock:

My wife (in her early 40s at the time) used to do about 31/32 minutes on her touring Mercian on pressures with mudguards and pannier rack (unladen) but broke 30 minutes when we got her a Peugeot 531 road racing bike with Campag equipment and sprints. Strangely she was slower on the racing bike the first time she rode it because she didn't try as hard.

My usual 10 time on a Mercian touring frame but with sprints and no mudguards was usually 25 minutes plus or minus a few seconds. I did around 27 minutes on my trike with a sprint front wheel (for psychological reasons, mostly ) and pressures on the back wheels. I was never very fast but I was always touring fit.

In the end it's mostly down to legs, lungs and what's in your head. The equipment is important but secondary.

Geoff

Positron

Yep - 30min is a good target but as long as you don't keep the timekeeper waiting too long there's no obligation. They'll start you off early if you don't know what kind of time you'll do anyway.

sloboy

hambones wrote:

30 mins would be a good benchmark time although you should never worry about how you compare to others, just enjoy doing them for yourself.

I think the speeds suggested in that magazine article are somewhat generous.

I'd offer 20mph or less = beginner
21-24 = intermediate
25+ = advanced

Ah, spoilsport -

redddraggon

hambones wrote:

I'd offer 20mph or less = beginner
21-24 = intermediate
25+ = advanced

So If I average 20.5mph, does that mean I'm a Advanced beginner, or a beginner intermediate?

musto_skiff

I have just done my first 10m TT on the Tacx trainer.

I managed 10m in 26:46, average power of 217W.

How is this likley to translate onto the road?

xover_runner

Depends on gradients and wind speed/direction but I would have thought about 29/30 in the road

bahzob

You can try putting your watts plus some other details into this site
http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

It should get you into the right area (e.g. I did a 10 on a road bike, riding on the drops at 320W. It predicted 23.52 and I did 24.12)

Bronzie

musto_skiff wrote:

How is this likley to translate onto the road?

Probably not a million miles out in still conditions. Depends on how accurate your power measurement is of course.............and don't forget in real life you need to go around at least 1 roundabout!

I've done a lactate threshold lab test which gave my sustainable power around 300W and I can knock out a 24 minute 10 when I'm at my best.

musto_skiff

Bronzie wrote:

musto_skiff wrote:

How is this likley to translate onto the road?

Probably not a million miles out in still conditions. Depends on how accurate your power measurement is of course.............and don't forget in real life you need to go around at least 1 roundabout!

I've done a lactate threshold lab test which gave my sustainable power around 300W and I can knock out a 24 minute 10 when I'm at my best.

300W steady :shock: that seems some way off right now ...

hothead

musto_skiff wrote:

I have just done my first 10m TT on the Tacx trainer.

I managed 10m in 26:46, average power of 217W.

How is this likley to translate onto the road?

Musto_skiff how much you pay for your tacx trainer? and what model have you got?

Mark Alexander

mc_nz wrote:

under 30 mins puts you at about 18mph average. In last months cycling weekly (or another mag) they broke down the same question and it read like this;

Over 10 miles cycling as fast as you can on a relative flat surface you should record your average;

Beginner - 18 mph & under
Intermediate - 18-22mph
Advanced - 22mph +

I think that's a bit generous. I've done 23mph and dont consider myself "Advanced"

nmcgann

musto_skiff wrote:

I have just done my first 10m TT on the Tacx trainer.

I managed 10m in 26:46, average power of 217W.

How is this likley to translate onto the road?

Nothing like as good as 26:46 I'm afraid. I have been averaging 305-ish tacx iMagic "watts" for 20min intervals in training and I haven't got under 26min on the road yet.

I'd guess you'd be just over 30min unless you are small and exceptionally aerodynamic.

Neil

musto_skiff

hothead wrote:

musto_skiff wrote:

I have just done my first 10m TT on the Tacx trainer.

I managed 10m in 26:46, average power of 217W.

How is this likley to translate onto the road?

Musto_skiff how much you pay for your tacx trainer? and what model have you got?

I have the i-Magic; got it from Ribble Valley Cycles on-line; can't remember the price as I am trying not to add up the cost of all the bike bits I have brought over the last 2 months.

Make sure you get the sweat catcher thingy as you seem to drip a lot ... :?

Bronzie

musto_skiff wrote:

300W steady :shock: that seems some way off right now ...

I've looked up my results again..........my anaerobic threshold was 270W, and my legs fell off at 330W, so you are not that far away from my meagre power output :oops:

musto_skiff

Bronzie wrote:

..........my anaerobic threshold was 270W, :

I have heard that phase before ... what is it, how do you measure it and what does it mean for a cyclist?

Bronzie

musto_skiff wrote:

Bronzie wrote:

..........my anaerobic threshold was 270W, :

I have heard that phase before ... what is it, how do you measure it and what does it mean for a cyclist?

Layman's terms, it's the level of power you can sustain for about an hour. Hence handy for 25 mile TT pace etc. Excercising above this level is ideal for hard interval training and will enable your body to produce more power at this level as you get fitter.

Sports phsiologist terms......................well I don't understand it well enough to explain, but have a search in the training forum and some clever bod like Alex_Simmons/RST will enlighten you.

To get it measured properly you need to do a "ramp test" in a lab (got mine done FOC but I think they are £150 or so otherwise). You ride a stationary trainer with accurate power resistance, whilst wearing a heart monitor and your breathing is analysed (you breathe in and out through a tube with a noseclip on so you can't cheat). You then start riding and every few minutes, the resistance is increased. Meanwhile, in between telling you to "keep going", "dig deep" etc, the lab technician pricks your earlobe and measures the lactate level in your blood. Sounds like fun no? Best bit is when you take the noseclip off after you finish..............yuk!

Mike Willcox

bahzob wrote:

You can try putting your watts plus some other details into this site
http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

It should get you into the right area (e.g. I did a 10 on a road bike, riding on the drops at 320W. It predicted 23.52 and I did 24.12)

I've just put my stats in to the calculator to work out my average wattage over my best 10 TT on a road bike and it came out as 525 watts. Is that any good?

P.S. That translates to 18.987 minutes on a TT bike. That's what I thought.

Edited: Just put in a wind speed of 5 mph from 0 mph and the power output increased to over 650 watts. Nah!

bahzob

Mike Willcox wrote:

I've just put my stats in to the calculator to work out my average wattage over my best 10 TT on a road bike and it came out as 525 watts. Is that any good?

P.S. That translates to 18.987 minutes on a TT bike. That's what I thought.

Edited: Just put in a wind speed of 5 mph from 0 mph and the power output increased to over 650 watts. Nah!

Yes 525W pretty good, obviously you missed your calling.

musto_skiff

I dunno how the Tacx translates to the road but I do know I am getting better

Just done 10TT in 25:47 thats 59s faster than my last attempt.

Average power 240W.

One annoying this was that the trainer kept dropping my heart rate; anyone know why this may be (I have tried a new battery) ....??

feel

redddraggon wrote:

hambones wrote:

I'd offer 20mph or less = beginner
21-24 = intermediate
25+ = advanced

So If I average 20.5mph, does that mean I'm a Advanced beginner, or a beginner intermediate?

No, it means you're a pedant